[PATCH] x86: Prevent uninitialized stack byte read in apply_alternatives()

From: Mateusz Jurczyk
Date: Wed May 24 2017 - 08:51:46 EST


In the current form of the code, if a->replacementlen is 0, the reference
to *insnbuf for comparison touches potentially garbage memory. While it
doesn't affect the execution flow due to the subsequent a->replacementlen
comparison, it is (rightly) detected as use of uninitialized memory by a
runtime instrumentation currently under my development, and could be
detected as such by other tools in the future, too (e.g. KMSAN).

Fix the "false-positive" by reordering the conditions to first check the
replacement instruction length before referencing specific opcode bytes.

Signed-off-by: Mateusz Jurczyk <mjurczyk@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
arch/x86/kernel/alternative.c | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/alternative.c b/arch/x86/kernel/alternative.c
index c5b8f760473c..d03ba6bc97d8 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/alternative.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/alternative.c
@@ -410,7 +410,7 @@ void __init_or_module noinline apply_alternatives(struct alt_instr *start,
insnbuf_sz = a->replacementlen;

/* 0xe8 is a relative jump; fix the offset. */
- if (*insnbuf == 0xe8 && a->replacementlen == 5) {
+ if (a->replacementlen == 5 && *insnbuf == 0xe8) {
*(s32 *)(insnbuf + 1) += replacement - instr;
DPRINTK("Fix CALL offset: 0x%x, CALL 0x%lx",
*(s32 *)(insnbuf + 1),
--
2.13.0.219.gdb65acc882-goog